Chapter 412 — You Still Have to Go to Wei Zhao

"Professor Guan Xuewen—the very professor who has been treating your injuries all along, Brother Yang..." Qiu Lingshan called Yang Huaijun "Brother Yang" in private; it felt a little more intimate that way.

"Oh? Old Guan?" Yang Huaijun was briefly taken aback. "If you're looking for him, then don't take the long way around and put the cart before the horse—go straight to Wei Zhao."

"Go to Wei Zhao?" Qiu Lingshan was taken aback as well. "What would I go to Wei Zhao for?"

"If you go to Old Guan, he'll recommend Wei Zhao to you too," Yang Huaijun said with a laugh.

After the call ended, Qiu Lingshan was still rather puzzled. Why was it that for everything, Yang Huaijun told her to go to Wei Zhao? Was Wei Zhao some kind of all-purpose miracle worker? When she had asked him for help catching the killer before, he hadn't had a clue—so how was it that he had a way when it came to Liu Bojia?

Still, since Yang Huaijun said so, there had to be a reason. Qiu Lingshan did not much trust Wei Zhao, but when it came to Yang Huaijun, her trust was absolute.

With that thought, Qiu Lingshan dialed Wei Zhao's number...

Wei Zhao pushed open the door of Tang Jucheng's hospital room and walked in. The Tang father and daughter had been talking about something; seeing Wei Zhao enter, Tang Zhi immediately shut her mouth, her face flushing slightly. "You... why didn't you knock?"

Tang Jucheng, by contrast, was all smiles. "Xiaoyi's here! Come, sit! Yun'er, pour your classmate some water and peel him an apple."

"No need to trouble yourself!" Wei Zhao waved a hand. "There isn't much time during the lunch break. Let me take a look at your injury first, and then Tang Zhi and I will head back."

"All right. How should I cooperate?" Tang Jucheng was delighted. He had heard his daughter describe the miraculous scene she had witnessed the day before, so now his feelings toward Wei Zhao were equal parts satisfaction and trepidation—he could not tell whether a young man like this would ever take a fancy to his daughter.

"It's fine, Uncle Tang. Just lie on your side right there." Wei Zhao walked over with a smile and drew a box of silver needles from his pocket—the same ones he had used when giving Liu Zhenhu acupuncture, and which he had carried on him ever since.

"All right." Tang Jucheng hurried to comply, turning onto his side.

Wei Zhao inserted a needle into Tang Jucheng's lower back, seemingly with great casualness. Tang Zhi's heart leaped into her throat with fright, though when she saw no strange expression on her father's face, she patted her chest and breathed easy again.

"Do you feel anything?" Wei Zhao asked.

"No..." Tang Jucheng shook his head slightly.

Wei Zhao frowned, began twirling the handle of the needle in his fingers, and then asked, "How about now? Feel anything?"

"No..." Tang Jucheng shook his head again.

Wei Zhao's expression tightened almost imperceptibly. Tang Jucheng did not notice, but it did not escape Tang Zhi's eyes, and she could not help growing nervous—yet she dared not ask, for fear her father would hear and his newly lifted spirits would plunge back into the depths.

"How about here?" Wei Zhao moved the silver needle to another spot.

"A little... a little something, a tingling..." This time Tang Jucheng reacted. "My lower back feels rather itchy..."

"Ha... that'll do. Nothing serious." Wei Zhao smiled.

"Really? Good, good!" At Wei Zhao's words, Tang Jucheng was instantly overjoyed. Before Wei Zhao had arrived, his daughter had told him any number of wondrous things about the young man, and now, witnessing Wei Zhao's remarkable acupuncture with his own eyes, his admiration knew no bounds.

"Uncle Tang, forgive me for speaking plainly—your left leg is fine, but there's something wrong with your right leg." Wei Zhao did not conceal it; there was no need to conceal such a thing. In a few days, when the man stood up and tried for himself, he would know.

"What? Only one leg... wouldn't that make him a cripple?" Tang Zhi blurted out in her alarm, though she regretted it the moment the words left her mouth. Saying such a thing in front of her father—he was sure to be hurt...

"Oh? Only one leg works? That's still not bad—far better than lying in bed like this, unable to do a thing. At least she can help her mother out with chores!" Tang Jucheng was taking it in stride. The shock had lasted only a moment before he recovered his earlier cheerfulness. To him, so long as things were better than the present, that was enough—why set his demands so high?

"Good that Uncle Tang has that attitude." Wei Zhao had expected he would need to offer Tang Jucheng a few words of comfort, but to his surprise the man was so clear-eyed about it that it saved him a great deal of talk. "But don't lose heart, Uncle Tang. Once you've fully recovered, I'll give you a few sessions of acupuncture, and then I'll bring the herbs from my hometown. With those, you can throw away the crutch."

"Really?" Tang Zhi had already resigned herself to reality, but hearing that Wei Zhao still had a way, her eyes flew wide open and she stared at him. "There's still a way?"

"Uncle Tang's situation is much the same as Xiaofen's, so of course there's a way." Wei Zhao smiled. "So Uncle Tang needn't carry any mental burden—it's only a problem with the nerves."

"That's good, that's good!" Hearing this unexpected piece of good fortune, Tang Jucheng was overjoyed. He had thought there was no hope left, and now Wei Zhao was actually saying it could be cured!

"Thank you..." Tang Zhi pressed her lips together. There were so many words of gratitude in her heart, but when they reached her lips, all that came out was this simplest of phrases.

"Ha, it's nothing—just a little effort on my part." Wei Zhao smiled, but then his phone rang. He made an apologetic gesture, took out the phone, glanced at the caller, and found he did not want to answer it at all!

The call was from Qiu Lingshan. What was this girl calling about now? Was there some other matter?

"Whose call is it? Why aren't you answering?" Tang Zhi looked at Wei Zhao, puzzled.

"Some brain-dead girl." With that, Wei Zhao hung up.

"Brain-dead girl?" Tang Zhi was taken aback, not knowing whom Wei Zhao meant.

"Qiu Lingshan, that is—you've met her. Last time I helped her rescue a hostage," Wei Zhao said.

"Oh, it's Officer Song. Then she must be calling about something important, no? Why won't you answer?" Tang Zhi remembered now. "What if you need to ask a favor of her someday?"

Tang Zhi had struggled at the bottom of society for too long, so to her, having one more friend was always a good thing—especially a very capable **, who might be of help when trouble came!

"Ask a favor of her? It's a wonder she doesn't come asking favors of me..." Wei Zhao was mid-sentence when the phone rang again. Still Qiu Lingshan. There was nothing for it—Wei Zhao had to pick up. "Hello? Brain-dead girl, are you ever going to give it a rest? What is it now?"

Wei Zhao could not even get a few words out with Tang Zhi without being interrupted, so naturally he was resentful. This Qiu Lingshan had no sense of timing when she called.

"What did you say..." Qiu Lingshan was about to snap back, "Who are you calling a brain-dead girl?", but in the end she swallowed it down! She needed a favor from Wei Zhao, so naturally she had prepared herself to take some abuse. "Fine. The brain-dead girl has something she wants to ask you!"

Qiu Lingshan was so furious her teeth itched; she wished she could devour Wei Zhao whole. But she knew very well that Wei Zhao was the sort who yielded to softness but not to force. If she dug in and stayed tough to the end, he might very well just hang up on her.

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